This work was published
in the Missionary Herald in December 1827. What makes this so unusual is the fact
that the Cherokee alphabet was the invention of an American Indian who could neither
read nor write, when he commenced his task of bringing the Cherokee nation to
literacy. He invented a written language to do this. His name was Sequoyah. He
was born between 1760 and 1770 somewhere in Tennessee. His people migrated to
Arkansas under a treaty of 1817, and there Sequoyah sought to interest his people
in his dream of putting their thoughts on paper as the white man did with his
‘talking leaves’ (books). This colourful illiterate genius succeeded beyond his
wildest expectations. Never in the history of man, as it is recorded, has one
individual brought a whole nation out of illiteracy. Within 10 years the Cherokee
alphabet was being used to print books. In 1829 a newspaper was printed in the
language called the Cherokee Phoenix and in October 1843, the Cherokee National
Council authorised the publication of the national newspaper to be called the
Cherokee Advocate. It was published in both English and Cherokee. The paper finally
ceased printing in 1906 and remains a monument to both Indian culture and the
genius of Sequoyah.